“I am dying but let not the territory we were fighting for fall for the enemy”
The Great son of mother India and who earned title “Naushera Ka Sher” after recapturing Jhanger sector of district Rajouri, in J&K by defeating Pakistani Army , Brigadier Mohammad Usman on Sunday, remembered on his 74th death anniversary.
Brigadier, Mohammad Usman, Mahavir Chakra (P), had refused to become Chief of Army Staff (COAS), of Pakistan Army after partition, instead laid down his life while fighting enemy (Pakistani Army). Instead of falling in religious trap laid by Ali Mohammad Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, Brig. Usman preferred to die for India, and he made the supreme sacrifice on 3rd of July in 1948 at Jhangar, J&K, Kashmir War 1948.
In 1947 Pakistan sent tribal into the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir in an attempt to capture it and accede it to Pakistan. Brig Usman, who was commanding the 77th Parachute Brigade at that time, sent to command the 50th Parachute Brigade, deployed at Jhangar in December 1947. On 25 December 1947, with the odds stacked heavily against the brigade, Pakistani forces captured Jhangar. On that day Brig Usman took a vow to recapture Jhangar a feat he accomplished three months later, but at the cost of his own life.
In Jan-Feb 1948 Brig Usman repulsed fierce attacks on Nowshera and Jhangar, both highly strategic locations in J&K. During the defence of Nowshera against overwhelming odds and numbers, Indian forces inflicted around 2000 casualties on the Pakistanis.
His defence earned him the nickname “Lion of Nowshera”. Pakistani forces then announced a sum of Rs 50,000 as a prize for his head. Brig Usman continued to sleep on a mat laid on the floor as he had vowed that he would not sleep on a bed till he recaptured Jhangar. The enemy was eventually driven from the area, and Jhangar was recaptured. Pakistan brought its regular forces into the fray in May 1948. Jhangar was once again subjected to heavy artillery bombardment, and many determined attacks were launched on Jhangar by the Pakistan Army.
However, Brig Usman frustrated all their attempts to recapture it. It was during this defence of Jhangar that Usman was killed on 03 July 1948, by an enemy 25-pounder shell. He was 12 days short of his 36th birthday. Brig Usman was offered rank of general by Jinnah himself and the prospect of becoming the Army Chief in the Pakistan Army, he declined the offer and continued to serve the Indian Army. Brig Usman is the highest ranked officer of the Indian Army who made the supreme sacrifice in the Indo-Pak War 1947-48. Honoured with a state funeral, a grateful Nation and its leaders were overwhelmed at his supreme sacrifice in the battlefield. The Brig Usman memorial consecrated at Jhangar, Naushera, on the same rock, on which the shell which took his life landed.
Brig Usman’s mortal remains are interred in the campus of Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi. Brig Mohd Usman was one of the only 18 Brigadiers serving in the Indian Army at the time of independence. He remains a symbol of courage, leadership and selfless service to the Nation.
Information and photographs taken from twitter handle @LestWeForgetIN
